The drop bear (sometimes dropbear) is a hoax in contemporary Australian folklore featuring a predatory, carnivorous version of the koala. This imaginary animal is commonly spoken about in tall tales designed to scare tourists. While koalas are typically docile herbivores (and are not bears), drop bears are described as unusually large and vicious marsupials that inhabit treetops and attack unsuspecting people (or other prey) that walk beneath them by dropping onto their heads from above. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
The origin of the drop bear myth is unknown. It has been attributed to a sketch in Paul Hogan's comedy show The Paul Hogan Show in which koalas jump out of the trees and attack a man. However, others say it began as a scary story for children, or as a trick played on soldiers visiting Australia for training. [7]
A 1967 article in Army , the Australian Army's newspaper, mentions "a dreaded Drop Bear", [8] and a 1976 article about an army base refers to "the legends and stories of drop bears and hoop snakes that supposedly originated there". [9] Other early appearances in print include a Royal Australian Navy News article in 1978 [10] and a classified advertisement in the Canberra Times in 1982. [7]
Stories about drop bears are generally used as an in-joke intended to frighten and confuse outsiders while amusing locals, similar to North American "fearsome critters" such as the jackalope. [11] Tourists are the main targets of such stories. [12] [13] These tales are often accompanied by advice that the hearer adopt various tactics purported to deter drop bear attacks—including placing forks in the hair, having Vegemite or toothpaste spread behind the ears or in the armpits, urinating on oneself, and only speaking English in an Australian accent. [5] [14] [ full citation needed ]
The website of the Australian Museum contains an entry for the drop bear written in a serious tone similar to entries for other, real, species. The entry classifies the drop bear as Thylarctos plummetus and describes them as "a large, arboreal, predatory marsupial related to the koala", the size of a leopard, having coarse orange fur with dark mottling, with powerful forearms for climbing and attacking prey, and a bite made using broad powerful premolars rather than canines. Specifically it states that they weigh 120 kilograms (260 lb) and have a length of 130 centimetres (51 in). [15] The tongue-in-cheek entry was created for "silly season". [16] [17] The Australian Museum also established a small display in the museum itself, exhibiting artefacts which it stated "may, or may not, relate to actual drop bears." [17]
Australian Geographic ran an article on its website on 1 April 2013 (April Fools' Day) purporting that researchers had found that drop bears were more likely to attack tourists than people with Australian accents. [18] The article was based on a 2012 paper published in Australian Geographer, and despite referencing the Australian Museum entry on drop bears in several places, images included with the Australian Geographic article were sourced from Australian Geographer and did not match the Australian Museum's species description. [5] [15] [18]
The drop bear hoax was humorously referenced in an advertisement for Bundaberg Rum. [19]
In the Discworld novel The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett, drop bears inhabit the continent of Fourecks, [lower-alpha 1] a land portrayed as a parody of Australia. This version of the drop bear tale sees the animals with well padded backsides to cushion their fall. [20]
Australian Chris Toms and New Zealand musician Johnny Batchelor formed a band named "The Dropbears" in 1981. [21]
Bigfoot, also commonly referred to as Sasquatch, is a large and hairy human-like mythical creature alleged by some to inhabit forests in North America, particularly in the Pacific Northwest. Bigfoot is featured in both American and Canadian folklore, and has become an enduring icon in popular culture.
The koala, sometimes called the koala bear, is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae and its closest living relatives are the wombats. The koala is found in coastal areas of the mainland's eastern and southern regions, inhabiting Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. It is easily recognisable by its stout, tailless body and large head with round, fluffy ears and large, dark nose. The koala has a body length of 60–85 cm (24–33 in) and weighs 4–15 kg (9–33 lb). Fur colour ranges from silver grey to chocolate brown. Koalas from the northern populations are typically smaller and lighter in colour than their counterparts further south. These populations possibly are separate subspecies, but this is disputed.
Urban legends is a genre of folklore concerning stories about an unusual or humorous event that many people believe to be true but largely are not.
A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into putting up the highest possible social currency in support of the hoax.
The jackalope is a mythical animal of North American folklore described as a jackrabbit with antelope horns. The word jackalope is a portmanteau of jackrabbit and antelope. Many jackalope taxidermy mounts, including the original, are made with deer antlers.
The skvader is a Swedish fictional creature that was constructed in 1918 by the taxidermist Rudolf Granberg and is permanently displayed at the museum at Norra Berget in Sundsvall. It has the forequarters and hindlegs of a European hare, and the back, wings and tail of a female wood grouse. It was later jokingly given the Latin name Tetrao lepus pseudo-hybridus rarissimus L.
The fur-bearing trout is a legendary creature found in American folklore and Icelandic folklore. According to folklore, the trout has created a thick coat of fur to maintain its body heat. Tales of furry fish date to the 17th-century and later the "shaggy trout" of Iceland. The earliest known American publication dates from a 1929 Montana Wildlife magazine article by J.H. Hicken. A taxidermy furry trout produced by Ross C. Jobe is a specimen at the Royal Museum of Scotland; it is a trout with white rabbit fur "ingeniously" attached.
Phascolarctos is a genus of marsupials with one extant species, the koala Phascolarctos cinereus, an iconic animal of Australia. Several extinct species of the genus are known from fossil material, these were also large tree dwellers that browsed on Eucalyptus leaves.
Thylacoleo is an extinct genus of carnivorous marsupials that lived in Australia from the late Pliocene to the Late Pleistocene, often known as marsupial lions. They were the largest and last members of the family Thylacoleonidae, occupying the position of apex predator within Australian ecosystems. The largest and last species, Thylacoleo carnifex approached the weight of a lioness. The estimated average weight for the species ranges from 101 to 130 kg.
The term Australian megafauna refers to the megafauna in Australia during the Pleistocene Epoch. Most of these species became extinct during the latter half of the Pleistocene, and the roles of human and climatic factors in their extinction are contested.
A goanna is any one of several species of lizard of the genus Varanus found in Australia and Southeast Asia.
The Great Wall of China hoax was a faked newspaper story concocted on June 25, 1899 by four reporters in Denver, Colorado about bids by American businesses on a contract to demolish the Great Wall of China and construct a road in its place. The story was reprinted by a number of newspapers.
Palorchestes is an extinct genus of large terrestrial, herbivorous Australian marsupial of the family Palorchestidae, living from the Miocene through to the Late Pleistocene. Like other palorchestids, it had highly retracted nasal region suggesting that it had a prehensile lip, as well as highly unusual clawed forelimbs that were used to grasp vegetation.
In North American folklore and American mythology fearsome critters were tall tale animals jokingly said to inhabit the wilderness in or around logging camps, especially in the Great Lakes region. Today, the term may also be applied to similar fabulous beasts.
Koala emblems and popular culture deals with the uses which have been made of the image of the koala, such as coins, emblems, logos, mascots and in the naming of sports teams.
Blinky Bill: The Mischievous Koala is a 1992 Australian animated adventure comedy film directed by Yoram Gross and produced by his Sydney-based production company Yoram Gross Film Studios.
Dreamworld Corroboree is a collection of wildlife attractions at the Dreamworld amusement park on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The area is divided into several subsections which allow guests to view the animals in their natural habitats. Dreamworld Corroboree is a registered zoo with 800 native and barnyard animals located within the Dreamworld grounds.
Australian mythology stems largely from Europeans who colonised the country from 1788, subsequent domestic innovation, as well as other immigrant and Indigenous Australian traditions, many of which relate to Dreamtime stories. Australian mythology survives through a combination of word of mouth, historical accounts and the continued practice and belief in Dreamtime within Aboriginal communities.
Koala conservation organisations, programs and government legislation are concerned with the declining population of koalas, a well known Australian marsupial found in gum trees. The Australian government declared the species as endangered by extinction in 2022.